


Transference

by robinstraker



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Possibly Triggering, Suicidal Thoughts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-09
Updated: 2014-05-09
Packaged: 2018-01-24 03:45:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,705
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1590485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/robinstraker/pseuds/robinstraker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony has a new invention to try out, but he needs a little help from Bruce...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this 11-09-12. It was originally posted on ff.net but I've moved it over here since I'm actually posting here now....anyway, I wrote this a while back and haven't changed any of it, so yeah. Enjoy!

Bruce walked into his and Tony's lab, yawning. For some reason, his alarm clock hadn't gone off. He had woken, half an hour late, in a panic. It was pretty obvious he had hurriedly thrown some clothes on, as the buttons of his purple shirt were mismatched, and his hair was ruffled from restless sleep.

"Hello, Sleepy-Head!" Tony called, not looking up from some adjustments he was making to what looked like a new arm for one of his suits. "Oversleep, did we?" He chuckled, subtly moving what looked a lot like Bruce's alarm clock into a drawer in his desk and closing it slowly, before looking up at him. "I realise you have a lot to do today, so I reorganised your desk for you. He grinned, then turned back to his work, but not before relishing the sight of Bruce closing his eyes, counting to ten and breathing deeply when he thought Tony wasn't looking.

Bruce walked calmly over to his desk and sighed.

"Reorganised?" He muttered to himself irritably. "More like disorganised!" He stared at his desk, bewildered. Usually, it had neat piles of paperwork, organised pot holders of pens, pencils and other stationary, tidily stacked Manila folders of past team missions and aligned keyboard and mouse, desktop screen tilted and raised to _exactly_  the right position for him.

Now, it was utter chaos.

Paperwork was strewn across the desk and scattered across the floor, all mixed up and some pages ripped and crumpled. The Manila folders had all been opened, their documents swapped about and reordered. The separate pots of pens, pencils and the like had been spilt and tipped over, the caps of some of the more leaky pens removed, so ink soaked though to the paperwork and folders. His keyboard had been overturned, his mouse moved to the right hand side of the keyboard, instead of the left.

Bruce groaned, taking a seat on his desk chair and trying to calm down. Tony knew how OCD he was about his things. The rest of the lab, sure, it irritated him, but he could ignore it, so long as his own workspace was pristine.

"Tony, why did you do this?" he asked, as calmly as he could.

"Sorry Green Guy, what d'ya say? Daddy's very busy right now, maybe call back later? Beeeeeeeeeeeeeep!" Tony replied, imitating an answer-machine. Bruce sighed and stood up.

"I said,  **why did you do this?** " He was halfway to Tony's desk when his voice broke, slipping into the Hulk's baritone growl. Bruce paled as he glanced at his reflection in a glass cabinet. His eyes were green. His breathing quickened as he made a mad dash for the cage down the corridor.

He burst into the large room and agents scrambled; some urgently making calls to Director Fury, some frantically pressing buttons in the door to the cage to unlock it before Bruce practically ran into it, others, more new to the job, running from the room.

Bruce fell into the cage, feeling the transformation coming on before he even hit the ground. Suddenly, he realised he wasn't alone.

"Tony, what the hell?! Get out of here, are you mad?" He screeched, before panting for breath as his chest doubled in size, tearing his cheap shirt off his back. Tony grinned and reached out to him, with his new mechanical arm device. Bruce frowned in confusion, before dropping the matter to concentrate instead on breathing deeply, trying to calm himself so he wouldn't change. Although he was angry at Stark, he didn't want to hurt him.

"That's it, come to Papa!" Tony murmured to himself, as the arm started to light up as it made contact with Bruce's arm.

"Tony what the-" Bruce started, before feeling extremely light-headed and blacking out.

 


	2. Chapter 2

"Hell..." Bruce murmured as he slowly came to. Bleeping. Blinking noise beside him. Beep. Beep. Beep. he was in medical then. He groaned and reached up to his head. He felt so tired, so light-headed. His head, strangely, felt empty and clear. He sat up and immediately regretted it, sinking back into the bed.

"I'm so sorry, Bruce." Came a voice by his side. Bruce squinted awkwardly, wondering where his glasses were. "Oh right, sorry," came the voice, and Bruce was aware of someone struggling to put his glasses on for him. He blinked when they were on.

"Tony?"

The genius-billionaire-playboy-philanthropist smiled, sympathetically.

"You alright?" He asked. Bruce grimaced, guessing it would be less painful than shaking his head.

"Not really. I've got a headache, and I'm dizzy, and light-headed. it's weird, my head feels empty, kinda clear. What drugs did they give me? You think Fury would let me have them with my daily relaxants?"

Tony chuckled at that, then frowned.

"Bruce they...they didn't give you any drugs. Just some glucose in fluid. For energy. I guess my arm device kind of...overworked. I-"

"Arm device? What arm device?" Bruce interrupted, frowning in confusion.

Tony sighed, holding it up.

"It's designed to transfer energy from one source to the other. It stores it and converts it so the arc reactor and my suits can use it. Pretty cool eh? Although, I didn't have a good energy source to try it on, so I uh...provoked you, so I could nab some of the Hulk's."

Bruce's eyes widened.

"You...you did what?!"

Tony carried on his explanation, ignoring Bruce's outcry.

"Anyway, somehow it must have taken your energy as well as the Hulk's, which explains why you blacked out. I guess it explains why you feel light-headed and 'empty', the Hulk must still be unconscious...or...well, maybe he's, you know, gone."

Bruce slowly nodded, processing this new information.

"Give it back." He said solemnly, holding out his arm.

Tony blinked in confusion.

"But Bruce! How long have you waited for him to be gone from your head? To have peace and quiet in your mind? Besides, think how much good I could do to help the world with this new strength!"

"No, Tony. Give it back now. It's dangerous." Bruce replied, his voice flat and serious, thrusting his arm at him again.

Tony frowned and stepped back.

"No! I won't! You can't stop me! Besides, I'm doing the world a favour, getting rid of the Hulk!"

Tony sat up, ignoring the pain,

"His name," he spat, "is The Other Guy. Now stop this Tony, give me my damned energy back, you're going power crazy!"

His eyes flashed green for a second in his anger, then fizzled out back to his usual doe-eyed brown. Tony laughed.

"Is that it? Oooh Bruce no, stop it, I'm so scared!" He giggled and ran out the room.

Bruce lay back in his bed and sobbed. What was he going to do? His only real friend had turned on him, and now he was turning into another villain. He hated to admit it, but he only had this job because of the Other Guy. Who would want a shy, plain old scientist with depression to work in such an organisation like SHIELD?! Tony was right though, he had done the world a favour. Is that what he was really here for? So they could keep an eye on him, know where he was? Occasionally lock him up if they were scared?

Bruce slipped into a fitful slumber in his still weak state. He dreamt of tearing apart Harlem, of running for his life, of Betty, Betty in the hospital, Betty betraying him to her father, of his own father, of his beautiful mother, and being locked in an underground facility when Betty had abandoned him.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this is really short, but I wanted to keep the epilogue separate

When he finally woke, he was startled by Nick Fury's presence, the SHIELD director standing over him.

"Ah, Doctor Banner, how nice of you to join us again." Bruce looked around the room and saw the rest of the Avengers, all avoiding his gaze and staring awkwardly at their feet.

"We no longer require your services on the Avengers Initiative, due to certain...information which has come to light over the past few hours. " He glanced at Tony, who was skulking at the back of the group, before continuing. "However, we are aware you have no money or place of residence aside from here. Thus, we invite you to stay here, in your rooms, as soon as you are discharged from the medical bay."

"So you can keep an eye on me? In case the Other Guy somehow gets the strength to come out again?" Bruce asked dryly, eyebrow raised, his voice rasping,

Fury nodded curtly, then exited the room with the others.

Bruce lay back in the bed, closin his eyes as silent sobs shook his weak body. Then he stopped, a small smile crossing his lips as he wondered something.

_Without the Other Guy to stop me, can I finally end it?_


	4. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> sorry

The funeral of the late Doctor Banner was a small affair. Tony didn't show, choosing instead to drown his sorrows in some dark, members-only bar in Las Vegas.

Natasha sobbed quietly through the whole thing, giving her speech notes to Clint, who offered to read them for her, although he ended up breaking down by the end of it.

Thor and Steve sniffled, though would deny any such thing afterwards, and even Fury had to lift his eye-patch and wipe droplets of water which were definitely-not-tears from his eyes.

The entirety of the personnel at SHIELD HQ held a memorial service afterwards, and every year on that date held a two minutes of silence in remembrance.

Months later, TIME Magazine named Bruce their Man Of The Year.

It was Steve who suggested, two years later, that they present annual awards across the country in honour of their lost colleague for skills in Science, Good Nature To Others and Bravery of young children who had been orphaned or who had mental health illnesses or disabilities of some kind.

The Banner Awards became prestigious, and after the fourth year, televised nationally, and reported in newspapers all over the world, the winners becoming famous, offered grants at top universities and one going on to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

Bruce Banner started out as one man, became two, and affected millions.

 


End file.
